Reporters Without Borders ­ TV5 Monde Prize 2015  

Nominees 

  

 Journalist Category 

  

   

    Mahmoud Abou Zeid, aka Shawkan (Egypt)   “I am a photojournalist, not a criminal,” Shawkan wrote from Tora prison in February. “My                             indefinite detention is psychologically unbearable. Not even animals would survive in these                       conditions."   Shawkan is an Egyptian freelance photojournalist who has been in pre­trial detention for                         more than 760 days. He was arrested on 14 August 2013 while providing the US                             photojournalism agency Demotix and the US digital media company Corbis with coverage of                         the violence used to disperse demonstrations by deposed President Mohamed Morsi’s                     supporters in Rabiaa Al­Awadiya Square. Three journalists were killed that day in connection                         with their work   Aged 28, Shawkan covered developments in Egypt closely from Mubarak’s fall to Morsi’s                         overthrow and on several occasions obtained striking shots of the popular unrest. His                         detention became illegal in August of this year because, under Egyptian law, pre­trial                         detention may surpass two years only in exceptional cases. Few people in Egypt have ever                             been held pending trial as long as him.   A date has finally been set for the start of his trial, 12 December 2015, when he will be                                     prosecuted before a Cairo criminal court along with more than 700 other defendants                         including members of the Muslim Brotherhood, which was declared a terrorist organization in                         December 2013. Many charges have been brought against him without any evidence,                       according to his lawyer, Karim Abdelrady. The most serious include joining a banned                         

organization [the Muslim Brotherhood], murder, attacking the security forces and possession                     of weapons. He is facing a death sentence or life imprisonment.   His lawyers have still not been able to get their hands on the evidence that is essential to                                   prepare his defence. Held in Cairo’s Tora prison, he is suffering from mental exhaustion and                             hepatitis C, and his health has been getting steadily worse since 2014. According to human                             rights organizations, conditions are appalling in the prison and he is receiving no medical                           care.    Zaina Erhaim (Syria)   In 2012, Zaina Erhaim chose to leave London and the BBC to go and help cover the war in                                     her homeland, Syria. A journalism graduate, she is now teaching Syrian citizen­journalists in                         Aleppo, where she has been living for more than a year.   In all, she has provided training in print and broadcast journalism to nearly 100 citizen                             journalists, about a third of them women, in the past two years. She has also help to create                                   many new independent newspapers and magazines. She wants to show that there are                         alternative ways to cover the Syrian conflict, above all by focusing on the human dimension.   “I wanted to see Syria’s name in the headlines without news about the tragedies and                             massacres only,” she told The Arab Weekly in September. “Unfortunately, the humanitarian                       side of the Syrian conflict has been absent from Western media coverage for a while. You                               could only read news about the Islamic State and the massacres they have been                           committing.”   She also coordinates a training project for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, an                             international NGO that helps journalists in countries in conflict, crisis or transition. Many of                           her students, who come from all backgrounds, have had their stories published in leading                           international media. This extraordinary woman was awarded the 2015 Peter Mackler Award                       for Courageous and Ethical Journalism.    Ali Anouzla (Morocco)   The former editor of the news website Lakome’s Arabic­language version, Ali Anouzla was                         arrested in Rabat on 17 September 2013 and was charged with terrorism for posting a link to                                 an article by well­known Spanish journalist Ignacio Cembrero in the Madrid daily El País                           because it included a propaganda video by Al­Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) calling                           for Jihad. Because of this one link, Anouzla was held for five weeks before being released                               conditionally on 25 October 2013 pending trial.   His articles for both the Arabic and French­language versions of Lakome are still being                           blocked and he continues to face a possible 20­year jail sentence on the terrorism charge.                             After two years of professional inactivity, he has launched a new site, Lakome2, of which he                               

is the only shareholder for the time being because he does not want involve other investors                               as long as his case is still pending.   Anouzla is on the list of 100 Information Heroes that Reporters Without Borders published on                             World Press Freedom Day (3 May) in 2014.    Pravit Rojanaphruk (Thailand)   “The military hadn’t carried out detention without charge since the Sarit Thanarat dictatorship                         in the 1960s,” Pravit Rojanaphruk told Reporters Without Borders last July. This well­known                         journalist is the only one to have been detained arbitrarily twice in the “behaviour                           readjustment” camps created by the military junta that took power in May 2014.   Held for a week immediately after the coup, Pravit was detained again on 13 September                             2015 and, with a hood over his head, was taken off to a military base whose location was                                   kept secret. There he was interrogated and threatened for three days and was only released                             on 15 September after signing a written pledge not to take part in any “anti­coup” activity. On                                 his release, he was asked to resign by his employers at The Nation newspaper, who had                               been pressured by the authorities. Thus ended his 23­year career with this well­known                         English­language daily.   Despite the junta’s threats, Pravit refuses to remain silent. As soon as he was freed, he                               wrote an article describing the conditions in which he was held and the pressure put on him                                 and fellow detainees to make them crack. He also revealed that he gets calls from army                               officers who urge him to stop tweeting and criticizing the junta and who warn him that he is                                   under close physical surveillance. Now a freelancer, he is one of Thailand’s last journalists,                           perhaps the only one, to openly question the junta’s legitimacy, an activity that could lead to                               criminal charges at any time.    Esdras Ndikumana (Burundi)   An experienced journalist who is Radio France Internationale’s Burundi correspondent,                   Esdras Ndikumana has kept reporting during all the unrest that was triggered by President                           Pierre Nkurunziza’s insistence on running for a third term.   The authorities closed privately­owned radio stations and used threats and violence against                       journalists in the ensuing dangerous chaos but Ndikumana continued to report the news,                         becoming one of the few independent sources of information about the Burundian crisis.   While reporting from the spot where Gen. Adolphe Nshimirimana, the head of Burundi’s                         National Intelligence Service (SNR) had just been murdered on 2 August, he was seized by                             SNR officers, who threw him into a police truck, pinned him to the floor, and kept beating him                                   throughout the long drive to their headquarters. There they continued to beat him and torture                             him for two hours, calling him an “enemy of the nation.” After removing his shoes and                               

trousers, they hit him again all over his body with blunt objects. One of his torturers broke his                                   finger in order to take a ring.   A few days later, the president’s office said every effort would be made to shed light on the                                   assault on Ndikumana. Nonetheless, no one has been arrested although there were many                         witnesses to what took place.    Ahmed Abba (Cameroon)   A Hausa­language correspondent for Radio France Internationale in northern Cameroon,                   Ahmed Abba was arrested in Maroua on 30 July on suspicion of spying for Boko Haram.                               After 15 days in the custody of the Maroua police, he was transferred to Yaoundé, where he                                 has been held incommunicado ever since. His lawyer, who heads the Yaoundé bar                         association, has not been able to see him or have access to his case file, and no official has                                     said what he is charged with.   RFI regards his continuing detention as “extra­judicial” in nature because all the deadlines                         for taking him before a judge have been exceeded. RFI is pressing for his lawyer to be                                 allowed see Abba and read the case file.   Cameroon has distinguished itself by its mistreatment of journalists, who are often jailed or                           arbitrarily summoned for questioning by the police. The situation was not improved by the                           adoption of an anti­terrorism law in late 2013 that allows anyone suspected of endangering                           state security to be held by the police indefinitely. This is what has happened to Abba.   Ever since the start of the offensive against Boko Haram in northern Cameroon, the region                             has been a minefield for independent journalists. They are denied access by the army or find                               themselves being arrested on spying charges if, for example, they try to carry out interviews                             in refugee camps after managing to enter the region by avoiding the army checkpoints.    Rauf Mirkadyrov (Azerbaijan)   Well­known newspaper reporter Rauf Mirkadyrov has languished in prison for the past year                         and a half with no sign of a trial. Although his health is deteriorating, his pre­trial detention                                 keeps on being extended. The judicial investigation into his case is dragging on for an                             obvious reason – because the “high treason” charge brought against him is utterly absurd. If                             a trial is eventually staged, it will be a sham, like the trials of Khadija Ismayilova, Seymour                                 Khazi and so many other journalists who have recently been given long jail sentences.   A veteran journalist, Mirkadyrov is known for being critical not only of the Azerbaijani                           government but also the Turkish and Russian ones. One of the founders of the opposition                             newspaper Bizim Yol, he was also deputy editor of Monitor, a newspaper whose managing                           editor, Elmar Huseynov, was murdered in 2005. At the time of his arrest, he was working for                                 

Zerkalo, a newspaper that was forced to close a few months later after being economically                             throttled by the regime.   Ranked 162nd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom                           index, President Ilham Aliyev’s autocratic regime has been conducting an unprecedented                     crackdown on independent media outlets and human rights defenders for the past two years.                           The Turkish authorities are complicit in Aliyev’s attempt to brand Mirkadyrov as a spy for                             trying to promote dialogue with Armenia. It was in Ankara that Mirkadyrov had been based                             for the previous three years when he was arrested in April 2014 and illegally deported back                               to Azerbaijan.    Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca (Cuba)   Like most independent journalists in Cuba, Lázaro Yuri Valle Roca is close watched by the                             police. In his case, the persecution began at the start of 2015 when he tried to join other                                   Cuban journalists and bloggers in covering the demonstrations that the Ladies in White                         stage every Sunday. Since then Valle Roca was been subjected to constant and intolerable                           harassment: he has repeatedly been jailed, he has been beaten by prison guards, he has                             been abducted in police cars, and his equipment is often confiscated.   Of late, police patrols cars prevent him from leaving his home on Sundays. At the same time,                                 he has received anonymous death threats, while rumours of his suicide have even been                           circulated in his neighbourhood. His is a classic example of the kind of ordeal that                             independent journalists undergo in Cuba, which is ranked last in the Americas in the                           Reporters Without Borders 2015 press freedom index.   Valle Roca recently wrote to Reporters Without Borders requesting its support. Regarding                       his situation as akin to that of a “war reporter,” he courageously continues his work.    Julio Ernesto Alvarado (Honduras)   At the end a marathon defamation trial in 2014, a court issued a sentence banning Julio                               Ernesto Alvarado from working as a journalist for 16 months. The Inter­American                       Commission on Human Rights interceded in November 2014, asking the Honduran                     authorities to stay implementation of the ban as a “precautionary measure” until it ruled on                             the substance of the case.   The Honduran authorities have nonetheless ignored the request, and have dismissed                     Alvarado’s appeals against the sentence. In the latest example the supreme court rejected a                           request for a trial review on 4 September. This judicial persecution is typical of the                             harassment that all outspoken journalists and opposition media undergo in Honduras.   For the time being, Alvarado continues to host a programme called “Mi Nación” on Radio                             Globo y TV, pending formal notification of the work ban. In his programme, he covers                             

sensitive political developments including the scandal about the ruling party’s alleged                     embezzlement of social security funds, as well as the problems of chronic corruption and                           violence in Honduras.    Markus Beckedahl and André Meister (Germany)   Two German journalists, Markus Beckedahl and André Meister, were accused of high                       treason in July for disclosing the German domestic intelligence agency’s plans for                       developing Internet surveillance. Their source was also charged. This is the first time that the                             intelligence agency has brought high treason charges since 1962, when there were two                         Germanies.   The information that Beckedahl and Meister posted on the Netzpolitik.org blog included                       details of the programme’s budget, which – like almost all of German intelligence service                           budgets – is classified. They revealed that 2.75 million euros had been allocated for “bulk                             Internet data analysis.”   The findings of legal experts published on 3 August confirmed that the information was                           classified. As a result of the outcry about the charges, the government distanced itself from                             the prosecutor who requested this expert report, Harald Range. Shortly after complaining of                         being pressured by the government, Range was dismissed by the justice ministry. But the                           judicial investigation continues.   Shedding light on the German intelligence agencies’ surveillance programmes is                   Netzpolitik.org’s chief concern. It is one of the German blogs that devotes most space to this                               issue.    Federica Angeli (Italy)   A journalist who has specialized in covering the mafia and organized crime for the daily La                               Repubblica, Federica Angeli has been threatened repeatedly in recent years and she and                         her family have lived under police protection for the past two years. On 14 September, she                               was threatened live on TV by a man whose family is linked to a mafia clan. Insults were                                   posted on social networks during the broadcast. Angeli filed a complaint.   She was threatened for the first time in July 2013 while investigating racketeering in Ostia,                             Rome’s seaside suburb, where she discovered that the mafia had infiltrated the                       municipality’s services. She and the two TV technicians accompanying her were kidnapped                       for more than two hours. La Repubblica ran the story and, on its website, posted video                               footage of the abduction that the two technicians had secretly filmed. Around 50 people were                             arrested within the next few days.   When Angeli witnessed a shootout between various mafia families a few weeks later, she                           recognized her abductors and went to the police with this information. Thereafter she                         

received more threats, this time against her children. She recounted all of this in a TV                               programme, naming participants in the shootout including two members of the Spada family.                         More threats ensued. She filed a complaint in August 2014 and ten people were arrested as                               part of the “beach racket” investigation the following November, including Armando Spada,                       the person who had made the first death threat against her.   The Italian government meanwhile dissolved the Ostia municipal administration on the                     grounds of the mafia infiltration revealed by Angeli.      Mohammad Sedegh Kabodvand (Iran)   The onetime editor of Payam­e Mardom­e Kurdestan (a newspaper closed by the authorities                         in 2004), Mohammad Sedegh Kabodvand, 55, has been held in Tehran’s Evin prison since                           July 2007. He was given an 11­year sentence in June 2008 for creating an illegal human                               rights organisation in Iran's Kurdish northwest.   He suffers from heart problems and his condition has worsened in Evin, where he is being                               denied adequate treatment and where prison officials have repeatedly rejected his requests                       for medical parole. He has staged several hunger strikes since June 2014 in protest against                             the conditions in which he is being held and against the judicial authorities’ refusal to allow                               him to visit his son, who is very ill and who is hospitalized in Tehran.   His wife, Prinaz Bagheban Hosseini, said in an interview on 3 August that the prison                             authorities are still denying him proper medical care although his condition is now much                           worse and he has often felt extremely ill.    Farida Nekzad (Afghanistan)   The former editor of the Pajhwok Afghan News agency, Farida Nekzad has spent the past                             12 years being threatened by media freedom’s enemies, who have repeatedly tried to kidnap                           or kill her. While investigating female journalist Zakia Zaki’s murder in 2007, she received                           phone calls and emails promising her the same fate. They just reinforced her determination                           to defend freedom of information and women’s rights.   She launched the Wakht News Agency in 2008 and still runs it, employing women journalists                             to cover a range of issues including women’s rights. Despite financial difficulties, the agency                           has a network of correspondents throughout Afghanistan and continues to be one the                         country’s leading independent news outlets.   In 2014, Nekzad was put in charge of the Independent Election Commission’s media                         commission, with the job of monitoring media impartiality during the presidential election                       campaign. Despite a climate of extreme tension, she spent several months investigating                       media violations of the electoral rules and complaints from the public about election                         coverage. 

  The winner of many international prizes including the Courage in Journalism Award from the                           International Women’s Media Foundation, Nekzad continues to spearhead the fight for                     women’s rights in Afghanistan and to campaign for the overhaul of media legislation with the                             aim of getting more protection for journalists in their often dangerous work.   

    

Netizen Category  

  

   Abduljalil Al­Singace (Bahrain)   A member of the Bahrain Thirteen, a group of human rights activists who were arrested for                               their role in the peaceful protests of 2011, Abduljalil Al­Singace used to criticize the regime’s                             human rights violations and persecution of its political opponents in his blog Al Faseela.   After being arrested in March 2011, he and a total of 20 other defendants were tried by a                                   military court on charges of belonging to terrorist organizations and trying to overthrow the                           government. The sentence of life imprisonment he received in June 2011 was confirmed by                           an appeal court in September 2012. He and the 12 other human rights activists then turned                               to the Court of Cassation, which rejected their appeal in January 2013.   This prisoner of conscience began a hunger strike on 21 March of this year in protest against                                 police use of collective punishments and torture against inmates in Jau prison after a riot in                               the prison at the start of March. At the time of writing, he was still continuing his hunger                                   strike, which has so far lasted 160 days. In August, Reporters Without Borders joined 40                             other international organizations in sending the Bahraini government an urgent appeal for his                         release.   Osama Al­Najjar (United Arab Emirates)   On 25 November 2014, the Abu Dhabi federal supreme court sentenced citizen­journalist                       and blogger Osama Al­Najjar to three years in prison and a heavy fine for tweeting about the                                 mistreatment that his father and all the other defendants in the “UAE 94” trial received in                               detention.   Al­Najjar was one of the first people to use social networks to criticize the conditions in                               detention and torture of the UAE 94 – the 94 Emiratis who were arrested on charges of links                                   with the Muslim Brotherhood and trying to overthrow the government and who were given                           sentence ranging from seven to 15 years in prison in July 2013.   Arrested on 17 March 2014, he was convicted of insulting the state via Twitter, inciting                             hatred and violence, being a member of Al­Islah (a party affiliated to the Muslim                           Brotherhood), and spreading false information. His laptop, camera and mobile phone were                       seized when he was arrested and his Twitter account was shut down.   Any connection with the Muslim Brotherhood is regarded as a crime in the UAE, which is                               ranked 120th out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom                           index. The government pursues “cyber­criminals” with the help of the Telecommunications                     

Regulatory Authority (TRA) and anti­cybercrime units, which coordinate efforts to monitor                     and censor the Internet.   Atena Farghadani (Iran)   Atena Farghadani, 28, is a citizen­journalist and human rights activist who was sentenced to                           12 years and nine months in prison on 2 June 2015. She was arrested on 11 January, a few                                     days after posting a video on Facebook and YouTube in which she described her                           experiences in Section 2A of Tehran’s Evin Prison – a section controlled by Revolutionary                           Guards – after her earlier arrest in August 2014.   She was arrested on charges of “activities against national security,” “anti­government                     propaganda by means for performance art,” and “insulting government officials and                     parliamentary representatives in a published cartoon.” The charges were prompted by a                       cartoon she drew of parliamentarians with animal feature in protest against a new law                           restricting access to contraception.   She was hospitalized on 27 February, 18 days after beginning a hunger strike. According to                             her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, she had a heart attack and was taken to Firozgar Hospital                             in Sharrai but was returned to Evin prison a week later. She is now being held with                                 non­political detainees in Gharchak prison in Varamin, a municipality south of Tehran. Her                         family said she staged another hunger strike from 16 to 19 September in protest against                             mistreatment.   Zone9 bloggers (Ethiopia)   Four of the six Zone9 bloggers arrested in April 2014 – Atnaf Berhane, Befekadu Hailu, Abel                               Wabella and Natnail Feleke – continue to languish in Addis Ababa’s notorious Kality prison                           18 months later. The case is still being investigated and the charges have changed over                             time. Initially arrested for “working with foreign organizations claiming to defend human                       rights” and “receiving funding in order to incite the public to violence via social media,” they                               were later charged with violating the 2009 anti­terrorism law, under which they are facing a                             possible sentence of five to ten years in prison.   Zone9 calls itself as “an informal group of young Ethiopian bloggers working together to                           create an alternative independent narration of the socio­political conditions in Ethiopia.”                     Alluding to the eight detention zones in Kality prison, where human rights defenders and                           journalists are held, the group’s name implies that entire country is a ninth zone where no                               one is really free to say what they think or report what is happening.   The blog was blocked by the authorities within Ethiopia soon after its creation in 2012 but it                                 remained accessible abroad and the group continued to post information and comments on                         social networks. Because of constant harassment by the authorities, they suspended activity                       seven months before their arrests, which occurred immediately after they announced that                       they were going to resume blogging.   

When two of the six bloggers (and three journalists who had been arrested at the same time)                                 were released in July, the reason given was lack of evidence. One wonders why the other                               four are still being held, since the case against them is the same evidence.   Roy Ngerng (Singapore)   Blogger Roy Ngerng has been the target of judicial harassment by Prime Minister Lee Hsien                             Long for nearly a year and a half because of a May 2014 post on his blog, The Heart Truths,                                       in which he accused the government of mismanaging Singapore’s Central Provident Fund                       (CPF) for retirees.   This is the first time in the city­state’s history that a prime minister is suing a member of the                                     public for libel. Officially, Lee has brought the suit as an ordinary citizen, not as prime                               minister. In practice, he has not hesitated to use the resources available to someone in his                               position to make the 34­year­old blogger pay for his audacity and simultaneously send a                           dissuasive measures to all professional and citizen­journalists covering political and                   economic affairs in Singapore.   Threatened by the prime minister’s team of lawyers, fired from his hospital job on spurious                             grounds shortly after the suit was filed, insulted and threatened on social networks and in the                               comments sections of news websites by an army of Internet users on the government’s                           payroll, Ngerng nonetheless continues to report and comment on the government’s lies                       about its handling of the CPF.   In another article published in September, the fruit of detailed research and analysis of                           publicly available information, Ngerng brilliantly demonstrated both the government’s                 fraudulent operations and its attempts to censor any revelations about these operations.   The target of both civil and criminal proceedings, Ngerng is currently awaiting a supreme                           court decision on Lee’s summary judgement application, under which the courts would take                         the alleged defamation as a given and would just determine the penalty and the size of the                                 damages award. The damages could be as high as 400,000 Singapore dollars and, if                           Ngerng cannot pay, the courts could declare him bankrupt and ban him from leaving the                             city­state in a substitute for imprisonment.   Charlie Smith (China)   A co­founder of GreatFire.org, a Chinese NGO that monitors and documents the Chinese                         Communist Party’s cyber­censorship, Charlie Smith is one of the few bloggers and                       citizen­journalists who can claim to be capable of rendering this censorship obsolete.                       “Charlie Smith” is a pseudonym that he uses to protect himself from arrest.   This cyber­activist and his anonymous associates are responsible for “Collateral Freedom,”                     an initiative that uses strategically located mirror sites with the aim of making it very costly                               for the Chinese authorities to block the sites of leading international media such as the BBC                               and Deutsche Welle, and other news sites such as Boxun and China Digital Times. 

  Since 2011, they have also been developing applications that allow Chinese Internet users                         to circumvent the Great Firewall of China – the vast collection of censorship technologies                           developed by the government to filter and block information. The first of these apps was                             Freeweibo, which enables users to search for censored messages on Weibo, China’s Twitter                         equivalent. Then came Freebrowser, a search engine that, unlike the Chinese Internet giant                         Baidu’s search engine, does not filter out politically sensitive content. GreatFire’s tools and                         technology are freely available so that anyone can use them to combat online censorship.   Smith also urges leading international Internet and information technology companies to                     accept their social responsibilities. In articles posted on GreatFire.org, Smith and his team                         have directly challenged the likes of Apple, Microsoft and Wikipedia and have forced some                           of them to stop cooperating with China’s censors. In 2013, for example, Microsoft had to                             start protecting the data of its Skype users, which until then had been transmitted in full to a                                   Chinese company controlled by the government.   With the support of Smith and GreatFire, Reporters Without Borders launched its own                         worldwide Collateral Freedom initiative in March 2015 with the aim unblocking access to                         nine websites that provide news and information about countries with authoritarian regimes                       such as Iran, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Bahrain.   Huynh Thuc Vy (Vietnam)   Huynh Thuc Vy is a dissident who has been blogging about human rights violations in                             Vietnam, especially in the H’Mong community, on the Dan Chim Viet Online website and on                             her own blog (http://huynhthucvy.blogspot.com) since 2009. She also runs the website of                       Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, an NGO she helped to found.   This year she published “Commentaries on the truth – freedom and human rights,” a                           collection of her articles about civil liberties, democracy, Vietnam’s dictatorial regime and its                         violations of basic rights.   What with arbitrary arrest, interrogation, fines, raids on her home and confiscation of material                           and articles, she has been subjected to constant harassment by the police and government                           since 2011. She was prevented from boarding a flight to Bangkok on 12 July of this year to                                   attend a seminar on cyber­security organized by Reporters Without Borders. In an attempt to                           denigrate her, the Dak Lak provincial police went around on 15 September telling friends,                           neighbours and fellow citizens that her articles were reactionary and dangerous.   She also writes for the BBC, The Diplomat, Voice of America and Asia Sentinel and in 2012                                 she received Human Rights Watch’s Hellman/Hammett award and the Vietnam Human                     Rights Network’s annual award for human rights work.   Angel Santiesteban Prats (Cuba)   An independent blogger and Reporters Without Borders media freedom hero, 

Angel Santiesteban Prats was released conditionally on 18 July after being held for two                           years for criticizing the government in his blog called “Los hijos que nadie quiso” (The                             children no one wanted”).   In an attempt to conceal the political nature of his arrest, the authorities convicted him on                               trumped­up charges of “home violation” and “injuries” in a summary trial on in December                           2012. In September 2014, the Inter­American Commission on Human Rights asked the                       Cuban government to guarantee his safety because he had been mistreated, threatened and                         subjected to mental torture in prison.   He refused to remain silent while detained, continuing to protest about the government’s                         harassment and getting his views posted on his blog with help of Elisa Tabakman, the blog’s                               Argentinian editor.   Since his release, he has been constantly subjected to arbitrary arrests and threats of being                             returned to prison, above all with the aim of preventing him from covering the                           demonstrations by the Ladies in White. A book he wrote about his time in prison has just                                 been published, and he is now fighting for the right to free speech in Cuba and trying to get                                     his trial revised.    

 Media Category 

  

  

  Inkyfada.com (Tunisia)   Launched in 2014, Inkyfada is a Tunisian online magazine with Arabic and French­language                         versions that aims to restore faith in independent journalism by publishing investigative                       reports and feature stories on such sensitive subjects as tax fraud, human trafficking and                           prostitution. The initiative is unique in Tunisia and offers a new model for the Tunisian media,                               which are still struggling to emerge from the effects of decades of self­censorship.   Inkyfada pays attention to both substance and presentation. Articles are long but have a                           clean, easily­navigated interface. One of its biggest stories so far was about the Tunisian                           accounts exposed in the SwissLeaks investigation and the fraudulent practices of former                       President Ben Ali’s relatives and associates. Written by Inkyfada founders Malek Khadraoui                       and Sana Sbouai and published in February 2015, it was hailed by media freedom                           defenders but, to their surprise, received little attention from the Tunisia media.   The reaction suggests that the Tunisian media are still frightened of investigative journalism                         and that Inkyfada’s innovative model needs promoting so that journalists finally take                       ownership of the reform of the media sector initiated after the January 2011 revolution.   Cumhuriyet (Turkey)   This year, the Istanbul­based daily Cumhuriyet has distinguished itself by its defence of                         media freedom in Turkey but has paid a high price. As the government kept stepping up its                                 harassment of its critics, Cumhuriyet’s independent and courageous journalism triggered                   one prosecution after the other, a smear campaign and the repeated blocking of its website.   “The person who committed this crime will pay dearly, he won’t get away with it so easily,”                                 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in June when announcing on TV that he was bringing                             a formal charge of “spying” against Cumhuriyet editor Can Dündar. The newspaper had just                           published photos and a video showing that a convoy of the Syria­bound trucks leased by                             Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) in 2014 had indeed been carrying firearms,                       as suspected at the time. The revelations revived a scandal that had been suppressed in                             2014 by means of drastic censorship. And it was an explosive one because, according to                             many observers, the convoy had been heading for a region controlled by jihadi groups.   But this is just one of many cases for Dündar, who is also being prosecuted (like other media                                   editors) on charges of insulting Erdogan and “terrorism.” Other Cumhuriyet employees are                       also facing the possibility of long jail sentences on various grounds including the                         newspaper’s decision to reprint some Charlie Hebdo cartoons after the massacre at the                         

Paris­based magazine’s headquarters in January – a decision that prompted a night­time                       police raid on its printing press. Other examples of Cumhuriyet’s courage include its                         coverage of the Kurdish issue and the Armenian genocide. On 24 April, it dedicated its front                               page to the 100th anniversary of the genocide, with the headline “Never again” in Armenian.   Meydan TV and Azerbaijan Saati (Azerbaijan)   Meydan TV and Azerbaijan Saati are a new generation of Azerbaijani independent media                         outlets that have been created in exile in response to the regime’s annihilation of the                             domestic media landscape. The first is an Internet TV station and the second is TV                             programme that is broadcast by satellite twice a week. The determination of a handful of                             journalists has been responsible for their emergence, especially two charismatic figures –                       well­known blogger Emin Milli in the case of Meydan TV and Ganimat Zahid, the editor of the                                 opposition newspaper Azadlig, in the case of Azerbaijan Saati.   The emergence of Meydan TV and Azerbaijan Saati clearly worries President Ilham Aliyev’s                         autocratic government, which thought it had silenced all critical media. As a result, it is now                               hard to keep track of all the arrests and attempts to intimidate those working for these two                                 outlets. In a bid to put pressure on Milli and Zahid, the authorities are now targeting their                                 relatives still in Azerbaijan, even if they have nothing to do with journalism. Several of them                               have been arrested on trumped­up charges in recent months. To escape this fate, members                           of Milli’s family publicly distanced themselves from him in an open letter to President Aliyev                             in June.   Iwacu (Burundi)   It has been hard to know what is happening in Bujumbura and even more so in the provinces                                   ever since 14 May, the fateful day when almost all of Burundi’s media outlets were silenced,                               some when attacked with firebombs or rocket grenades. Nowadays the only independent                       news outlet still operating in Bujumbura is the newspaper Iwacu (which has both print and                             online versions).   Created in 2008, it has distinguished itself by the accuracy of its reporting, the rigour of its                                 journalists and the depth of its features – qualities that have failed to win over the                               government. Presidential media adviser Willy Nyamitwe even brought a legal action against                       one of its journalists whose only crime was to have reported the interview Nyamitwe gave                             him.   “Just keep going” was what Iwacu editor Antoine Kabuhare told his staff when shooting was                             to be heard all over Bujumbura and President Pierre Nkurunziza’s henchmen were using                         deadly violence to disperse the street protests against his decision to run for a third term.                               And this is what his reporters still try to do, even though they put their lives at risk whenever                                     they venture on to the streets.   Droit Libre TV (Burkina Faso)   

Droit Libre TV is an independent online feature TV station based in Burkina Faso that covers                               social issues in West Africa from the human rights viewpoint and does not shrink from                             difficult stories. It describes itself as a TV station without borders accessible to all, and its                               slogan is “The Web TV that is 100% human rights and 100% free speech.”   Targeted at a young, independent and critical public, its online format encourages debate                         and viewer participation. It is one of a kind and constitutes a minor revolution in the West                                 African media landscape. It aims to be a subregional media outlet and does stories on all of                                 Burkina Faso’s neighbours. Even more remarkably, it stands above the sterile party politics                         that only too often contaminate the African media and instead focuses on the region’s                           population, the daily lives, their challenges and their aspirations.   Droit Libre TV also covers major breaking news. When members of the Presidential Security                           Regiment (RSP) – former President Blaise Compaoré’s praetorian guard – staged a coup                         attempt in Ouagadougou on 16 September, Droit Libre TV’s crews took to the streets to do                               interviews and cover this critical moment in Burkina Faso’s history. And they were targeted                           by RSP members, who used force to confiscate their material.   Hablemos Press (Cuba)   Hablemos Press is an independent Havana­based news agency that aims to gather and                         disseminate news in Cuba and abroad. Founded it 2009, it has 30 correspondents in the                             country’s 15 provinces and is nowadays regarded as one of Cuba’s leading independent                         news outlets. It also monitors the government’s harassment of journalists and human rights                         defenders, and provides constant and courageous coverage of the problems and dangers                       for independent reporters as well as the difficulties of Internet access.   The authorities constantly target its editors and reporters. Reporters Without Borders has                       registered many cases of arbitrary arrests of its correspondents, as well as almost daily                           cases of harassment and intimidation. The persecution was stepped in July and August,                         when Cuba was in the process of reestablishing diplomatic relations with the United States.                           Although this is a particularly difficult time for freedom of information, Hablemos Press                         continues to provide independent reporting with the aim of “reinforcing the country’s                       democratization.”   Cuba is ranked last in the Americas in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom                             index because its government maintains a complete monopoly on news and information and                         permits no independent media outlets aside from a few Catholic Church magazines. Internet                         access is extremely limited because of its prohibitive cost and the government’s draconian                         controls.   The Hablemos Press website, which the authorities have rendered inaccessible in Cuba                       since 2011, was one of the sites that was unblocked by the “Collateral Freedom” operation                             that Reporters Without Borders launched on 12 March.   Radio Globo y TV (Honduras) 

  One of Honduras’s most popular opposition broadcasters, Radio Globo y TV has been a                           government target ever since the 2009 coup d’état and is subjected to constant harassment                           that includes prosecutions, death threats against its employees and murders.   Five of the station’s employees have been murdered since 2011 without any investigation                         being carried out by the authorities. Impunity is one of the key characteristics of violence                             against journalists in Honduras. Speaking on the programme “Interpretando las Noticias” on                       14 May, Radio Globo director David Romero said he was the target of death threats for                               covering the alleged involvement of President Juan Orlando Hernández’s party in the                       embezzlement of funds from the Honduran Institute for Social Security. He obtained police                         protection after being told of a plan to murder him. He is now the target of a criminal                                   defamation prosecution and says the authorities plan to have him sentenced to                       imprisonment.   Judicial harassment is one of the many ways used by the government to pressure media                             outlets. The leading example is Radio Globo presenter Julio Ernesto Alvarado, who was                         banned from working as a journalist for 16 months at the end a drawn­out defamation trial in                                 2014. The Inter­American Commission on Human Rights interceded in November 2014,                     asking the authorities to stay implementation of the ban until it ruled on the substance of the                                 case. But they have ignored the request, and have dismissed all of Alvarado’s appeals                           against the sentence, the latest of them on 4 September. Such judicial persecution is typical                             of the way that critical journalists and opposition media are hounded in Honduras.   Correo del Caroní (Venezuela)   Founded 38 years ago in Ciudad Guayana, the capital of the southeastern state of Bolívar,                             this provincial newspaper is a perfect example of the way President Nicolás Maduro’s                         government uses threats, prosecutions and of course restrictions on access to newsprint to                         pressure Venezuela’s independent and opposition print media.   At the start of September, the interior and justice minister said judicial proceedings would be                             brought against Correo del Caroní journalist Damián Prat because he was part of a                           paramilitary group that was planning to carry out acts of looting and destruction in Ciudad                             Guayana. The warning came three weeks after National Assembly speaker Diosdado                     Cabello made similar accusations against Prat during his programme “Con el Mazo Dando.”   Because of the government­orchestrated newsprint shortage, the newspaper had to switch                     from being a daily to a weekly in August in order to continue producing a print edition.   In Venezuela, the newsprint distribution system is controlled by Corporación Maneiro, an                       entity that reports to the president’s office. Since 2014, many independent and outspoken                         newspapers have accused it of distributing newsprint in an unfair manner, one that is a form                               of indirect government censorship. Many newspapers have had to reduce the number of                         pages they produce, publish less frequently or abandon print editions altogether and just                         publish online. 

  Bivol (Bulgaria)   Sofia­based Bivol.bg is a leading investigative news website that has been the official                         partner of WikiLeaks since 2011 for the publication of leaked US diplomatic cables about                           Bulgaria. It has been sued many times in connection with its coverage of corruption and                             misgovernment.   Four banks sued Bivol in 2012 over articles exposing their bad practices. In a move                             approved by Bulgaria’s central bank, the Commission for Financial Supervision ordered Bivol                       in 2014 to reveal its sources for recent stories about questionable bank loans, or face a fine.                                 Editor Atanas Chobanov learned in August 2015 that he was the target of criminal libel                             complaint over a report that a former government minister had fraudulently claimed                       unemployment benefit in France. These proceedings were abandoned as result of various                       kinds of international intervention including by Reporters Without Borders.   Mukto­Mona (Bangladesh)   Founded in 2001 by several bloggers including the late Avijit Roy, Mukto­Mona                       (www.mukto­mona.com) is a Bengali and English­language website that publishes                 contributions by freethinkers of mainly Bengali and South Asian descent who are scattered                         across the globe. Its mission is to promote science, rationalism, secularism, freethinking,                       human rights, religious tolerance, and harmony among all people. To this end, it posts                           analytical articles, essays and reviews and has a forum for debate that is open to readers.                               Many well­known authors, scientists, philosophers and human rights activists have                   contributed to the site, including the blogger Asif Mohiuddin.   Since the start of 2015, four secularist bloggers, including Avijit Roy and other contributors to                             the site, have been murdered in Bangladesh by members of radical Islamist groups. Roy                           was hacked to death in Dhaka on 26 February. Washiqur Rahman was killed in a similar                               manner on 30 March. Ananta Bijoy Das was murdered in the northeastern city of Sylhet on                               12 May. Intruders armed with machetes hacked Niloy Neel to death in his Dhaka suburb                             home on 7 August. All four had criticized religious fundamentalism and had advocated                         tolerance, free speech and freedom of thought in their blogs.   As well as risking deadly physical violence, Mukto­Mona’s contributors are pressured by the                         Bangladeshi authorities, who often threaten to use article 57 of the Information and                         Communication Technology Act, under which “publishing fake, obscene or defaming                   information in electronic form” is punishable by seven to 14 years in prison.   Despite all the pressure and the fact that many Bangladeshi bloggers are forced into exile,                             Mukto­Mona continues to publish the contributions of writers who refuse to censor                       themselves and who accept no taboos, not even the taboo on criticizing Islam, the religion of                               90 percent of Bangladesh’s inhabitants.   Geo News TV (Pakistan) 

  The Pakistani media are increasingly the victims of “clashes” between the various political                         forces present in Pakistan. As an independent TV channel, Geo News does not hesitate to                             criticize the establishment, armed forces and intelligence agencies as well opposition                     parties. And for that, the TV station and its journalists are often the target of threats and                                 violence by the government, by the intelligence agencies and by radical armed groups.   In September, gunmen opened fire on a Geo News van in Karachi, killing one employee and                               injuring another. In July, projectiles were fired at the windows of Geo News star presenter                             Hamid Mir’s armour­plated car. The host of “Capital Talk,” a political talk show that often                             tackles controversial subject and criticizes government officials, Mir has been protected by                       bodyguards ever since becoming the subject of a fatwa. Already badly injured in a shooting                             attack in Karachi in April 2014, Mir had said the military intelligence agency known as                             Inter­Services Intelligence (ISI) should be held responsible for any attack against him.   Geo News is constantly the target of harassment that bears the fingerprints of ISI and its                               allies. The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority suspended it for 15 days in June                           2014. An anti­terrorism court in the far­north semi­autonomous region of Gilgit­Baltistan                     sentenced Geo TV owner Mir Shakeel­ur­Rehman and one of the station’s presenters,                       Shaista Lodhi, to 26 years in prison in November 2014 for a supposedly blasphemous                           programme.   Radical armed groups of all kinds, from Taliban to Hezbollah, are also the source of threats                               and attacks against Geo News, which does not hesitate to criticize US and Afghan policies                             as well as Pakistani government policies.   Anh Ba Sam (Vietnam)   Launched in 2007, the independent news website Anh Ba Sam is one of Vietnam’s                           best­known political news outlets. With a name that means Sidewalk News Agency, in                         allusion to the official Vietnam News Agency, its distinguishing feature is its wide range of                             sources – including government officials, policemen, diplomats and dissidents – which have                       often enabled it to expose political scandals and abuse of authority.   Its creator, the blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh, is himself a former police officer who became a                               private investigator. Since becoming Anh Ba Sam’s editor, he has been subjected to                         constant pressure from the authorities, who have tried to close the site down. The site has                               been the target of several waves of cyber­attacks, especially distributed denial of service                         (DDoS) attacks, which typically bombard a site with so many access requests that they                           crash its server.   The arrest of Vinh and one of his collaborators, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, on 5 May for posting                                   articles critical of the authorities has alarmed many bloggers and has increased                       self­censorship. But although Vinh is still detained, Anh Ba Sam continues to operate and to                             post many news stories thanks to the network of contributors trained by Vinh.   

Asia Plus (Tajikistan)   President Emomali Rahmon’s increasing authoritarianism could end up reigniting the civil                     war that tore Tajikistan apart in the 1990s. It also endangers independent journalism, whose                           leading exponents have included Asia Plus since April 1996. A news agency, radio station,                           TV studio and news website, Asia Plus uses a network of sources in almost all of the                                 country’s regions to provide freely and independently reported news despite often very                       difficult conditions.   Asia Plus is one of the few Tajik news outlets that does not wear blinkers and does not yield                                     to the temptation to censor its own coverage, including coverage of political and security                           issues that is likely to annoy the authorities. As a result, its website has been blocked                               countless times in recent years without reference to a judge and Asia Plus and its editor,                               Olga Tutubalina, have on several occasions been ordered to pay astronomical sums in                         damages.   They were the target of a new and particularly absurd warning in 2014, when they were                               deemed to have “insulted the intelligentsia” and were ordered to pay 30,000 somoni (4,500                           euros) in damages, a sum more than ten times Tutubalina’s monthly salary as editor. It was                               yet another way to intimidate Asia Plus and posed a grave threat to independent journalism                             in Tajikistan.